Illegal mowing: Teens can’t be paid to cut neighbors’ grass

Credit: DaytonDailyNews

The rite of passage for some teens is actually illegal in one South Carolina town.

Teens are not allowed to cut neighbors' laws and be paid in Irmo, WLTX reported.

Irmo’s Code of Ordinances actually prohibits it.

According to WLTX, the ordinance reads:

"The practice of entering or being upon any private residence; private property; public street; public place or vacant lot, or by traveling from place to place in the town by solicitors, peddlers, hawkers, itinerant merchants, and transient vendors, not having been requested or invited to do so by the owners or occupants, for the purpose of selling, offering for sale, or taking orders for or soliciting the sale of any goods, ware, merchandise, or other personal properties, or for peddling or hawking the same, including sales by sample and the taking or soliciting of orders for future delivery of photographs, portraits, prints, pictures, magazines, clothing, fixtures, machines, appliances, and all other articles or things to be made, produced, combined or manufactured."

If charged, those who go against the law could face a $500 fine or 30 days in jail.

Not only is it illegal to cut the grass of a neighbor to earn some extra spending money, kids are also apparently not allowed to sell cookies or lemonade.

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Some members of the town’s council want to amend the law to specifically allow teens to be able to earn money.

Teens' lawn mowing, "keep(s) them out of trouble, let them earn some money for the summer, and then they can make enough money so they can buy their school supplies when they go back to school, you know? It's a win-win for everybody; I get my grass cut. They earn money legally and learn how to be entrepreneurs. That's the way Irmo should be, promote that sort of stuff," council member Barry Walker told WLTX.

One teen said that he doesn’t make much and that most of his earnings go back into the lawnmower in the form of gas.

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